The present invention generally relates to an apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information, and more particularly to an apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information and having a lid member which covers an inlet for inserting a cassette housing a recording medium.
Conventionally, an apparatus for recording and/or reproducing information such as a video tape recorder (hereinafter simply referred to as a VTR) which is used indoors and one used outdoors have been proposed. The VTR used outdoors has a housing of a drip proof structure so that it is possible to prevent rain drops and dust from coming into the housing. In addition, it is necessary for a cassette insertion inlet through which a video cassette is loaded and ejected to be securely covered by a lid member so that the cassette insertion inlet can be formed as a drip proof structure. In this type of VTR, after the lid member covering the cassette insertion inlet is opened, a user manually loads the cassette in a loading position in the VTR. Then, the user takes out the cassette from the VTR.
In this type of VTR, it is also possible for the cassette to be automatically loaded and ejected by a driving mechanism having a motor, in the same manner as a general VTR.
In conventional VTRs having the drip proof structure in which the user loads and ejects the cassette manually, there are cases where the cassette is incompletely loaded in the loading position. It is also troublesome to load the cassette into and eject it from the VTR. In the VTR having the drip proof structure in which the cassette is automatically loaded and ejected by the driving mechanism, when the ejection operation of the cassette is mistakenly performed in the state where the lid member covers the cassette insertion inlet, there are cases that a device, the cassette or the like is broken since the lid member securely covers the cassette insertion inlet. In addition, it is necessary for a button for an ejection operation of the cassette to have the drip proof structure so that the structure of the device is complicated, and it is difficult to keep the device water-tight.